Since we began our world travel adventure so many of our friends and acquaintances have expressed their envy. They often make comments such as," you are so lucky" or "I wish I could travel the world like you do".

I am not even sure what to say to comments like these without sounding pretentious. I want to say "hey we aren't special, nothing extraordinary here," or "if we can do it so can you". The truth is, anyone can make travel or anything else a priority in their lives if they want to. Like the great Yoda says, "do or do not, there is no try". Just get out there and make it happen, take control of your life and your dreams.

I think the trouble is that most of us have forgotten how to dream. We don't seem to even know what it is that makes our hearts flutter. Think about it, really, do you wake up every morning knowing that you have options? Perhaps you feel trapped by obligations; mortgages, jobs, school and activities for the kids, or family and societal pressure not to live an alternative lifestyle even if it's temporary.

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I get it, we've been there. Stuck in our own self-induced reality that told us day-in-and-day-out that we didn't have enough money, or the reminder of all the things we had to fear; fear of the unknown, fear of failure, of a lack of stability for our kids, etc, etc. Those fears controlled my choices. In other words, the comfort of the traditional boring life was better than the fear of the unknown. But I realized several years ago that this fear was not even allowing me to dream of something new and different. How sad!

Before we got married, my husband and I figured that we really should get all our traveling out of the way because we thought that we couldn't possibly do it with kids in tow. He played beach volleyball in California for a year and hippied around in his VW campervan. I moved to Florida and back and spent three months in Europe. Phewww, done, traveling behind us, now we could get married and have kids and settle down into the whole 9-5 thing....right?

It took us seven years to realize that we indeed still wanted to travel and that the so called "American dream" was not our dream. Once we decided to make a change, what once seemed impossible to do with children suddenly seemed to have countless benefits for them. It's amazing the tricks your mind can play on you when you keep it in a small box of possibility.

I can't imagine this journey without my kids!

Then it took another 5 years of living abroad to see that we still yearned for more adventure. More importantly, it took us that long to realize that we could actually travel the world with kids. Through all of our earlier experiences, we now understood that we're in charge of our reality and can make it whatever we want. The limits that we saw were only limits we placed in our own minds. And we were now able to break through those limits and push outside of our comfort zone once we simply decided to do so.

If we can do it, anyone can! You just have to decide what you want out of this life and it will manifest. It truly is that easy.

Having children and traveling the world is not always easy, but it most certainly can be done. They enhance our experiences and learn so much about being a global citizen.

As for luck, it has very little to do with it. After all “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Although the lifestyle we lead is a dream come true, first we had to dream it and then we had to work very hard to make it happen.

My husband spent endless hours setting up a platform to make money with just a laptop and Internet connection. I had to get our belongings down to what could fit into our luggage and plan our excursions. And the kids had to kiss their pets goodbye. Not easy things to do, but they were all driven by our passion to explore new areas and experiences.

Just jump in and go for it!

So don't envy anyone's life, look at it as inspiration and a jumping off point to work towards your goals. Never say I wish I could do that. Just decide to do it, come up with a plan, and make it happen. In our opinion, life's too short to live any other way. Anyone can travel if that is their dream and if you have kids it just enriches the journey for the entire family. It's wise to try extended family vacations first to test the waters before jumping in to full-time travel.

There are lots of families following their travel dreams, see what they think about it:

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comments:

Love this! I especially like when you talk about how you had to get all of your travels out of the way before kids. It's just one of many things people put on their list that they have to do before the kids arrive at the "perfect time." I traveled a lot before hubby and a few years after we got married we were able to jump start our travels again. 2 years later our son showed up and I had just gotten started on my travel dreams. No way was I slowing down now! So glad you followed your heart to see where the road would take you. Can't wait to see where you head off to next.

I'm just going to go ahead and tell you this now. I am going to rip off that Yoda line again and again and again. 1 of the recurring themes I've seen come up in several of these posts is abandoning the fear of failure, which is I think Yoda was getting at.

Go for it Clark! It's one of my favorite quotes, my kids are probably sick of hearing it though:) Fear seems to be what the world thrives on, I fond it so sad that people are held back so much in life by this invisible ghost of fear. Imagine a world where that wasn't indoctrinated in us from a young age! It would be amazing!

Totally with Clark on this, LOVE that Yoda quote! Fear is paralyzing. Fear stopped us from following our dreams for a few years, but I am so happy we've now realised that it's OK to dream big, it's OK to go against the grain, and it's OK to be fearful, just don't let it stop you! Most of all, I love that we've connected with so many other families who are just as brave and free spirited as we are :)

That question is asked a lot and I am working on a post right now to answer it more so check back often. WE have another blog that is much more profitable, as well as some books. That is what we live on:) But honestly we spend less money now than we did when we were stationary. I guess the hard part is being ready to let go of the stationary things like a permanent home and typical belongings. It was a slow process for us!

I think it's difficult for most to let go of the stationary lifestyle and start living and moving. Probably some of the most rewarding and memorable moments and relationships are those I've made through traveling, a families bond couldn't get any stronger when learning a new language or customs together - in the end, we are what limits ourselves and our relationships.

I think it's really insightful that you wrote about how people have forgotten to dream. It's as if all our dreams were beaten out of us once we started living expected lives. Where was that first picture taken?

Yes Diya, I think it is so very sad. The thing is that many people may be content with their "expected" lives they lead and that is all completely fine but I doubt that it is many people's dream! They don't even know it!

The first pic is Koh Phi Phi island in Thailand off the coast of Phuket. The movie The beach was filmed there. 2nd pic is heading into a subterranean river on a bamboo raft in Pai, Thailand (very worth doing)and the last pic is a few years ago on Playa Bejuco in Costa Rica. A very secluded and pristine beach!